Deadly Trust
by aflightoffancy
Summary: Alec is hunting a man he’s sure is from Manticore, but Max has her doubts... MA.
1. Chapter 1

**Deadly Trust**

Summary: Alec is hunting a man from his Manticore past, but Max isn't sure he's chasing the right person.

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing. Just borrowing Max and Alec for a few chapters.

_So, umm… a _Dark Angel_ urge strikes again… We'll see what comes of it…_

Chapter One

* * *

"This contact of yours going to show up sometime today?" Max asked. 

Alec just shrugged, ignoring her attempt to get under his skin. "Look, you asked me if I knew someone who could help you find the part for your bike. I found someone."

"Yeah. But I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to wait here _all day_." She narrowed her eyes as she looked up at him. "Your contact's apparently as reliable as you are."

"Go ahead." Alec raised an eyebrow. "Insult me. That'll get you help next time your motorcycle breaks down."

Max clenched her teeth together angrily and Alec fought not to grin. She was so easy to bait. The truth was that Alec was about to go and hunt down Digger himself. It was pouring rain, they were both soaked to the bone and Digger was forty five minutes late. Granted, Digger was never really the most reliable person to deal with, but he somehow managed to come up with the goods. Eventually.

"It's _raining_."

Alec looked down at her, mock astonishment on his face. "Is that what this is? I've led such a sheltered life I wasn't sure. Thank you, Max."

"I can beat the crap out of you along with your very _late_ contact, you know."

"Digger will be here," Alec said, hoping that it was the truth. He really wanted in out of the rain. Manticore had loved to make them stand out in the rain. No moving or complaining allowed. No breaking formation even though you were miserable and freezing. He supposed they'd been trying to toughen them up. Alec was tough enough, however, and he certainly wasn't at Manticore anymore. He could eat what he wanted, drink what he wanted, sleep when he wanted and he could go inside when he wanted. Except, apparently, when Max's bike broke down. For her sake, he'd given up the good sense he had to come in out of the rain. Go figure.

"Alec!"

Finally. Alec and Max turned to see a man in his mid-twenties walking toward them. He was average height and weight, brown hair and eyes. Nothing to stand out in a crowd. He was fast though. Smart, too. Impressive, really, since he was an ordinary. Alec had learned to be wary of impressive ordinaries. Now that he thought of it, he'd learned to be wary of pretty much everybody. An eighty year old granny could shoot him just as dead as anybody else if he wasn't paying enough attention.

Alec rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Tell me you've got it."

"Would I let you down?" the man asked, as if shocked Alec could have doubted him.

"No," Max said through clenched teeth. "We've been standing here in the rain for an hour because you're so reliable."

Digger frowned. "Who's the chick?"

Max bristled. "The _chick_-"

Alec quickly cut her off. "This lovely lady is the person who's gonna pay you, Dig." He spared a glare at Max. "You want the part, be nice," he muttered for her ears only.

"Oh," Digger beamed. "Pleased to meet you, then. Where's the cash?"

"Where's the part?" Max shot back.

The man produced the no doubt stolen motorcycle part from his coat pocket and Max snatched it out of his hand in a blur of speed.

Alec frowned and shook his head. Max just didn't play well with others. More importantly, however, Digger was now looking at her with more interest than was necessary or comfortable. Alec had always been careful not to do anything particularly unusual around his overly-observant contact.

"Any problems, Dig?" Alec asked, trying to draw the man's attention away from Max.

"You kidding?" Digger grinned for effect. "This is me, we're talking about!"

"And that's why I spent a complete afternoon trying to outrun the sector police last time we had a little deal?"

"Not my fault, man. Not my fault." Digger shook his head. "I told you those things were too hot to try for."

"You told me _after_ you'd already taken my money and headed for the hills."

Digger just shrugged. "A man has to make a living."

Alec gave a little snort of approval. He could appreciate the need to be pragmatic in a world like theirs. Of course, that didn't mean he hadn't wanted to kneecap the guy.

Max had continued examining the part and finally nodded. She pulled a wad of cash from her own pocket and threw it to Digger who caught it nimbly and pocketed it in one smooth movement.

"Not going to count it?" Alec raised an eyebrow.

"Out in the open? In this neighborhood?" The man laughed. "I don't think so. Besides…" He eyed Alec intently. "I can find you if I need to."

The man probably could at that, Alec thought. Too smart by half. He had to fight the urge to remove the source of the little feeling of danger he felt every time he dealt with Digger. Self-preservation told him that Digger could be a problem some day.

Alec gave him a wolfish grin and Digger took a step back. Yup. Smart guy. Today wasn't the day though and Digger still had his uses. Had to be practical. The guy managed to find the scotch that Alec liked so much. "Thanks for your help, Dig. Knew you could find it."

"No problem." Digger nodded and hightailed it, nonchalantly of course.

"How do you do that?" Max asked.

"What?"

"Grin and make people run. I don't see what's so scary." If Alec didn't know better, he'd say she was jealous.

Alec shrugged, watching Digger weave his way through the remains of various burnt out cars and other garbage left in the street, then head down the alley opposite where he and Max were standing. "Glaring takes so much more work. That and it requires actually caring."

"You still scared him," Max observed.

"More like gave him a gentle reminder not to threaten me," Alec replied.

"Same thing. He's still running away."

They both watched as Digger disappeared into the distance and Alec grinned again. "What can I say? It's a gift."

"Please," Max rolled her eyes. "Your only gift is harassing every female that walks into Crash."

Alec opened his mouth to reply, but the words died on his lips. The man who'd walked past the alley opening… It couldn't be. It's wasn't possible. Not him. Not here.

"Alec?"

He vaguely registered the worry in Max's voice, but he couldn't draw his eyes away from the mouth of the alley where Digger had vanished and this other man had appeared. A man he knew. A man he would never forget.

"Alec!"

It was a command now. Max was demanding he pay attention to her, but he didn't answer, couldn't as his feet began moving almost of their own volition. Max set a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off, breaking into a run. He heard Max following, but kept moving. He couldn't let the man get away. Rain was pouring down, obscuring Alec's vision, but he refused to let it slow him down.

Alec ran down the alley and turned in the direction he'd seen the man walking. He stopped abruptly, trying to find him in the crowd of people milling their way through the intersection, and felt Max run into his back.

"Alec, what are you _doing_?"

"Where did he go?" Alec spun in a circle trying to find the man, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did _who_ go?" Max stepped in front of him and physically forced him to look at her. "What are you talking about?"

"There was a man…" Alec stepped back from her and once again turned in a circle, hoping to catch sight of his quarry.

"Describe him," Max ordered.

"Medium height, about 35, short blond hair." Alec closed his eyes for a moment, trying to recall the bare glimpse he'd had. "He was wearing dark pants, a brown jacket."

"And what are you going to do if you find him?"

Alec felt a wave of determination wash over him. It was almost peaceful, the absolute certainty of what he needed to do.

"Alec!" Max snapped impatiently.

Alec grinned, and knew that it was not a pretty sight. "If I find him… I'll kill him."

* * *

_More soon…_


	2. Chapter 2

**Deadly Trust**

Summary: Alec is hunting a man from his Manticore past, but Max isn't sure he's got the right guy.

_Many thanks for the lovely reviews. They do make a gal happy. And a happy gal is a typing gal…_

Chapter Two

* * *

"There!"

Before Max even had a chance to process what Alec had said, he was running again. Max sprinted after him as Alec wove his way through the crowd of people rushing to get out of the rain and headed down another alley.

"Alec, wait!" Max tried, but it was useless. She knew the look she'd seen on his face. Vengeance. She knew the feeling all too well, understood the burning need to right something that had been wrong for far too long.

What was so surprising was to see Alec wearing that expression. Alec cared about himself, about survival. Whatever was necessary to that survival, including turning a blind eye, was completely acceptable. Even after the disaster with Rachel, Alec had managed to continue working for Manticore shrugging off any reservations about what they asked him to do, knowing they were the bad guys and not really caring…

_They have ways of making you not care_.

Max could only imagine what they'd done to beat the fledgling feelings out of Alec after the Berrisford thing. Love that led to ignoring standing orders? There was no telling what he'd had to endure. Yet Alec had survived it. He'd survived it by not caring. Or at least seeming not to.

All of that meant that whatever had brought this on was _so_ not good. It was bad enough that Alec cared. That even after the passage of time, Alec _still_ cared. This was bad. Berrisford bad.

Max rounded the corner and stopped dead in her tracks. Alec had a man pinned up against a grime encrusted brick wall, his forearm pressed tightly into the man's windpipe. The guy was trying desperately to push Alec away, but he was no match for his attacker's superior height and strength. A quick glance at Alec's face did nothing to calm Max's steadily rising anxiety. The grin was gone now and a blank mask was in its place. He was studying the man like a scientist studies an experiment. It was carefully detached interest and Max wished like anything she knew what Alec was thinking.

"Please," the man gasped out. "Don't… hurt me."

Alec's mask slipped for only a second, but it was enough for Max to see the rage simmering beneath the surface. At that tiny glimpse of his real feelings, Max fought the urge to back away. Every instinct she had warned her not to come between these two.

"Please!" the man rasped, struggling to breathe. "M- my wallet's… in my… pocket."

"Don't remember me?" Alec asked coolly, increasing the pressure on the man's throat. "Why do I find that hard to believe?"

The man looked toward Max, his eyes pleading for her help. Those eyes looked innocent enough and Max felt uncertainty begin to crawl up her spine. The guy didn't exactly look like evil personified. Wasn't acting like it either. He looked like he was about to wet himself.

The man gasped, trying to draw in air past his constricted windpipe. "Don't… know… you."

"Alec, who is this guy?" Max demanded.

"This is an old friend," Alec said, not taking his eyes from his captive's face, which was turning several different shades of the rainbow now. "We knew each other a few years ago, didn't we?"

Max moved closer to break them apart. "Alec, he can't breathe."

"Can't breathe, Phillips?" Alec leaned in so that he was nearly nose to nose with the man. "Isn't that just a shame?"

"You need to stop," Max ordered, reaching out to separate them.

"Don't touch me, Max." The tone was light, but the undercurrent was a clear warning. "Phillips and I have unfinished business."

"Wrong… guy…," the man wheezed, obviously well on his way to being unconscious, "Don't… know… you."

"What's your name?" Max asked.

"Miles…" he panted.

Max quickly ripped the guy's wallet out of his pocket and looked at the ID. "He's telling the truth," she said, waving it in Alec's face. "His name's Miles Norman. Now let him go."

Alec's eyes darted toward the ID, barely glancing at it. "You think that means anything?" he snapped. "I've got enough fake ID to wallpaper my bathroom."

The man finally lost his battle to stay conscious and slumped in Alec's iron grip, his arms falling loosely to his side.

"Alec, it's not him and you're gonna kill him." Max sharply brought a fist in beneath Alec's arm, carefully aimed to both break his grip on the guy and knock the air out of him. Alec had been so focused on his victim he hadn't seen it coming and he staggered back, trying to draw air into his stunned lungs. Norman dropped to the alley floor like a rag doll and didn't move again.

"Hey, you!"

Max turned to see a cop standing at the mouth of the alley taking in the entire picture. _Perfect_. They had an apparent mugging victim on the ground and Max was standing there like an idiot still holding the guy's wallet. Alec was quickly recovering and he too turned in time to see the arrival of a second cop. Better and better.

Max bounded forward, grasping Alec by the elbow to pull him after her. She heard the sector police following, but they quickly outdistanced them as Alec fell into step beside her and together they ran.

Max knew exactly where she was leading them and didn't stop until she got there. Logan's apartment wasn't the penthouse, but it was a step above Joshua's old house. Logan had been forced to upgrade just because of the power consumption required by his equipment. Seeing the building now, Max purposely refused to question why she'd immediately headed there when things had gone south with Alec. But then Logan had always been the safer choice of the two. Logan was a good guy. Alec was… complicated.

Max looked up at Alec. On the surface, he seemed fine. The rain was still pouring down and Alec's hair was plastered to his head. His face was calm, rivulets of rainwater working their way down his cheeks, but Max knew that he wasn't nearly as calm as he appeared. Something was very, very wrong and it had everything to do with the guy in the alley, or rather with whoever Alec _thought_ it was in the alley.

"Why'd you stop me?" he asked abruptly.

"Cause it's not him," Max answered.

"How would you know?" Alec demanded angrily. "Were you there?"

"I saw that guy's face. He was terrified."

"Good," Alec said simply. He blinked and looked up as if just realizing where they were. "Look, I gotta go. You and Logan can do… whatever it is you do."

He was already moving away when Max pulled him to a stop. "I've got the guy's wallet. Logan can look him up for us," she said, trying for reason. Max had the feeling that if she didn't prove to Alec that Norman wasn't the man he thought he was, Norman wasn't going to live out the day. Whatever had set off all of Alec's warning bells had given him tunnel vision. He just wasn't thinking straight. "You're _that_ sure this is the guy?"

Alec looked at her, uncertainty flickering for just a moment on his face. She had the feeling it was for her sake rather than Norman's. It bothered him that she didn't believe him.

"Look, it'll only take a minute," Max urged. "You can kill him later," she added, when he didn't appear convinced.

Alec simply nodded and that troubled her more than anything. Max led the way up to Logan's apartment listening for Alec's steps behind her, trying to ignore the niggling fear that Alec would just bolt and go hunt down Norman.

She knocked on the door, then went ahead and walked in. True to form, Logan was sitting at the computer. He looked up and smiled as she walked in. The smile faltered slightly as he caught sight of Alec following, but Logan gamely kept his expression in place as best he could.

"Max, good to see you. Alec."

"Hey, Logan. How's the computer biz?" Alec responded and Max turned around in surprise. He sounded so… _normal_. Like there was nothing bothering him, like he hadn't just tried to strangle someone in a back alley.

"Pretty good," Logan said, eyeing them warily. Max knew she was giving off a problem vibe and tried to school her own expression, but he could tell something was up. Of course, she and Alec were both still soaking wet and forming puddles on Logan's floor. "Max?" he asked. "Something you wanna tell me?"

Max pulled the stolen wallet out of her pocket. Rather than handing it to him, she set it on the desk and then backed away. Logan watched her move back almost sorrowfully, then picked up the wallet and looked at it.

"What can you tell us about the guy on the ID?" she asked.

"Anything in particular I'm looking for?" he asked, looking from Max to Alec and then back again.

Max waited for Alec to answer, even hoped he would answer, but Alec was already moving away. He sat down on the chair in the corner and simply smiled, watching the two of them. "Oh, don't mind me. You kids talk all you want."

"You want a towel?" Logan asked wryly as the chair began soaking up the water from Alec's clothes.

"I'm fine, thanks," Alec nodded. "I'll be leaving shortly."

Max frowned and turned away from Alec. "Just see what you can find about the guy. We… ran into a little trouble earlier."

"What kind of trouble?" Logan asked, already beginning to type at his computer.

"Alec thinks he might have recognized the guy from Manticore." She hadn't needed to ask. Alec didn't get that worked up over anything else.

"Really?" Logan looked over at Alec who was purposely ignoring them both.

"You finding anything?" Max asked. She'd kick Alec's ass later for being unhelpful, but now wasn't the time. She needed to show him that the Norman guy wasn't who he thought he was. After that, it was just a matter of getting him to tell her what incident had caused this. Easier said than done, but after Alec's performance in the alley, it was not an option.

"Miles Norman," Logan said, reading out loud. "38 years old, blond hair, brown eyes." He trailed off, muttering to himself as he continued typing. "No criminal record… Couple of parking tickets." He kept typing. "Works at Farmer and Associates as an in-house accountant… Wife, Millie, two kids, one in Jr. High, the other in High School… Credit cards in the wallet are active. Has a thing for Chinese food…"

"Where does he live?" Alec asked casually and Max spared a second to glare at him.

"Lives at the address on the ID, Murphy Street."

"For how long?" Max asked.

"14 years," Logan said, then looked up at her. "This all looks legit. You sure he's Manticore?"

Max looked to Alec again and frowned. "No, we're not. Might be a case of mistaken identity."

Alec just raised an eyebrow. _Oh, yeah?_ he seemed to be saying.

Logan looked back at the computer and was silent while he concentrated on the screen. Max crossed her arms and simply waited. She needed him to be sure, needed him to be sure for Alec's sake. Minutes passed with nothing to listen to but the clacking of computer keys and the sound of rain ticking against the windows.

Finally, Alec couldn't take it any longer. He stood impatiently and headed for the door. "You guys let me know if you find anything. I'm gonna head out."

"What are you gonna do?" Max asked, moving to block his exit.

Alec smirked. "Go home, get some dry clothes, have a drink maybe?"

"That all?"

"Why, Max," he said casually, "What are you implying?"

"Alec you can't kill him. He's not who you think he is."

Alec's expression suddenly hardened and the transformation was startling. "You think I wouldn't know him anywhere?" His voice was low, almost a growl. "You think I don't know what he looks like, what he _smells_ like?"

"Alec, what did this guy-"

"Nothing you need to worry about," Alec cut her off.

Max refused to get angry. She hated Manticore as much as anyone, but someone needed to be thinking rationally and right now Alec wasn't it. "Talk to me, Alec. I can help you."

Alec simply looked down at her, studying her, his intent gaze boring into her. "Will you help me kill him?"

Max's jaw nearly dropped open. He was deadly serious though and she couldn't allow it to happen. "Alec, it's not him. Logan says-"

"I was _there_," Alec said, his voice quiet, pressured. "You _don't_ _know_…"

"What?" Max asked, almost desperately. She could practically feel Logan behind them, watching and listening, and wished that she hadn't brought Alec here. They needed to have this conversation in private. Certainly not in front of Logan. He didn't really understand Manticore, didn't understand what their lives were like. Not that she really understood what Alec's life had been like either, though she'd had a taste of it when she'd been recaptured.

Logan had been born to money and privilege. They'd been born caged animals. How did you explain that to a person? In a certain sense it was the same for her and Alec. She'd been free during her teen years. Alec's hadn't. He'd seen and done things she would never really understand, things she couldn't even contemplate. Intellectually, she knew it was true, yet it still hurt her when Alec just shook his head again and refused to say another word.

Logan cleared his throat loudly. "Guys, you wanna tell me what's going on?"

Max turned toward Logan and in that bare second Alec was gone. She felt the shift in the air as he blurred away from her and out the door.

"You sure this Norman guy is legit?" Max asked Logan.

"Sure looks that way. Why?"

"Give me the address again," Max said wearily. "I've got to stop Alec before he murders an innocent man."

* * *

_More soon…_


	3. Chapter 3

**Deadly Trust**

Summary: Alec is hunting a man he's sure is from Manticore, but Max has her doubts…

_Right… let's get this party started._

Chapter Three

* * *

"Stop following me, Max," Alec ordered. 

"I'm not following you," Max said, coming alongside and matching her stride to his slightly longer gait. "I'm going with you."

Alec just rolled his eyes and kept walking. If Max hadn't known he was on his way to rip some guy's head off, she'd have thought this was any other day and they were on an ordinary walk. At least the rain had finally slowed to just a drizzle.

"Look, you don't believe me. That's fine," he said with a shrug. "So go home. Let me deal with this."

"Somebody's got to keep you from doing anything too stupid," she replied with a shrug of her own. "Turns out that's my job today."

"Your faith… it's heartwarming. Like the glow of a cozy fire in winter." He gave her a sidelong glance, amusement dancing in his eyes.

Max snorted. "Alec, you've never been near a cozy winter fire in your life."

"Kinda the point of the analogy, Max," he said dryly, then the amusement died away. "I can take care of Phillips. You don't need to be involved."

Max wished like anything she could tease that glowing ember back to life. She wanted to see Alec's innate humor sparkling in his eyes, even if those eyes were lying to her. The bleak chill in his gaze now was agonizing to see.

"Stop looking at me like I'm defective," Alec ordered.

"Fine," Max said, looking straight ahead. Alec could read her better than anybody so she'd just look at something else.

"Good."

"Fine," she said again, wishing Alec would slow his walk. They were going to get there soon and she still didn't know what to do when that happened. At the moment, however, Alec was the one she was worried about, not Norman. "You wanna tell me what this is about?"

"No."

"Alec, I've told you about… things." _Ben_.

"Oh, yeah, Max." Alec gave a light huff of a laugh. "You share and share. Can't shut you up."

"Alec…" Max growled.

"I mean look at Logan. There's no doubt at all how you feel about him."

"Me and Logan-"

"Are none of my business?" Alec raised an eyebrow. "Not sure I agree with that, but fine. How do you feel about me?"

The question surprised her so much that she actually stopped in her tracks. Alec stopped with her. "I…"

How did she feel about him? Alec was impetuous, self-centered, amoral, dangerous. Yet, he could be surprisingly gentle, generous, loyal. At least to her, she mentally added. Alec was… Alec. They were almost inseparable these days and, whether she would admit it or not, she missed him when he was gone. He was important to her. More than important. He was…

Alec shook his head at her silence. "Well, thanks for clearing that up. Go home, Max. I'll take care of this."

"Did this guy… Did he hurt you?"

Alec sighed and started walking again, forcing Max to follow or be left behind.

"Well, did he?" Max couldn't deny that she really was curious.

"Drop it," Alec snapped, walking faster.

"How long ago did it happen?" Max pressed.

Alec looked up at the sky as if begging for assistance. "Which part of _drop it_, _go away_, _leave me alone_, and _no_, don't you understand?"

"I'm trying to get you to think before you go and kill the wrong guy!"

"It's not the wrong guy!"

"Logan says he's not Manticore!"

"And Logan is never wrong?" Alec asked incredulously.

"Logan knows what he's doing!" Max snapped.

"Then why doesn't he lock you up until he can find a cure?" Alec shook his head in disbelief. "I sure wouldn't let you run around with me."

Max stopped walking again involuntarily. "What?"

"I'm pretty sure I'd do my best to keep you away from the competition. And let's get this straight… I'm the competition."

"Alec, I…" How was she supposed to respond to a declaration like that?

Alec grinned. "See? Again with the communication… Impressive sharing as always, Max."

"You…"

"Me… you…" He made a rolling gesture with his hand. "Come on, Max, you can do it."

Max opened her mouth, then closed it again, completely flummoxed. "This isn't the time, Alec. It's not even what we're talking about. This is about Phillips… or Norman."

A host of warring emotions swept across Alec's face, so quickly Max couldn't follow. "No. It's about who you believe, who you trust. It's about who you protect and who you defend against." He waved a hand in a wide arc. "It's about all of that."

Max frowned in confusion. "I don't understand."

Alec's expression became thunderous. "You think I'd let someone just take you away from me if I could help it?"

"What?"

Alec reached out and grabbed her shoulders, his grip bruising. "I won't allow it, Max."

Max knew there was more to it than what she was seeing on the surface. "Is that what happened?" she asked. "With this Phillips guy?"

Alec closed down so fast she blinked. The emotion that had been so easily visible was just gone. He released her and took a determined step back.

"You don't know anything about it."

"Yeah, 'cause you won't _tell_ me anything."

"What do you want me to tell you, Max?" he said calmly. "That he nearly killed me? That he nearly killed all of us? That he stood there and took notes while we were dying?"

Max just stared at him, unsure of how to respond. "It's a start. You wanna fill in the details?"

"Why?" Alec mocked, his temper rising again. "So you can hold me and tell me it'll all be better?"

Max shrugged. She wasn't really a hugger. She was much better at hitting things. "I just want to understand, ok?"

"You can't," he said, almost sorrowfully, his anger leaving as quickly as it had appeared. At least his anger with her.

"I can try," she responded simply.

"Just let me kill him," Alec whispered, "and then you won't have to."

The look on his face was painful, hard for her to even look at. She wished she could burn Manticore down again and watch it turn to ash for what it had done to this strong, proud man. For what it had done to all of them.

"Alec, it's not _him_," she said, stepping closer. She grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled on them so that he ducked his head, meeting her eye to eye. "Please, listen to me. This is the wrong guy."

"No matter what you think, Max, I'm not losing it," he said. "I'm not."

"No," she replied, "but…"

Max knew first hand the things Manticore could do. Alec had obviously suffered at their hands. Logan had checked on Norman. He was legit. He was an _accountant_, for crying out loud. Alec and Logan couldn't both be right. It had to be that Alec just wasn't thinking clearly.

Alec put his hands over hers and pulled them away from his jacket, lingering a second before releasing them. "Go home, Max," he said one more time, stepping back.

"Alec…"

He turned away from her and quickly jogged two houses down the block, then headed up the steps to a small, white, wood-sided home. Max realized they'd been standing barely a stone's throw from Norman's home for several minutes and before Max could stop him, Alec had the screen door open and had kicked in the door.

Max sprinted after him and bolted up the home's porch steps. Alec was already inside and she ripped the screen door open and followed. There was no one in the front room, so she stopped momentarily to listen.

"Don't!"

Max recognized the man's voice from earlier and made a dash toward the back of the house. She ran into the kitchen to see Alec, gun steadily aimed in the man's direction where he was backed against the counter. She hadn't even known he had a gun on him.

"Alec, don't!" Max added her voice to Norman's.

"If you're not going to help then leave," Alec said calmly.

Max looked at the wide-eyed, panicked man against the counter and began edging toward Alec. She didn't know if she would be fast enough, but she had to try. She couldn't let him hurt an innocent person. Manticore had done enough of that already.

"Alec, look at him. _Really_ look at him," Max said evenly. "This. Isn't. Him." She saw Alec's grasp on the gun tighten. "You heard what Logan said."

"You hear that, Phillips?" he asked. "She wants to protect you. Bet you love that, don't you?"

Max looked at the man pressed back against the counter. He glanced at her, pleading with her as the voice of reason to help him as he'd done earlier in the alley. Max picked up a heavy cooking pot and launched it at Alec. He was so intent on his captive, that it cost him an extra second to realize that she'd moved and by then it was too late. The pot caught his hand and the gun flew out of it and across the room.

"No!" Alec said, his eyes widening in panic of his own now.

As if in slow motion, Max watched as Norman drew a gun from behind his back and his terrified expression fell away. Without hesitation, he aimed at Alec and fired. Alec dropped like a rock and the man immediately changed his aim to Max. Max really hated guns.

"Stay back," he ordered.

Max watched as he moved to stand over Alec. She felt the hair on the back on her neck prickle as a smile spread across the man's face.

"Good to see you again, 494. I've missed you."

* * *

_Y'all thought our dear, sweet, brilliant, but tortured Alec might be wrong? Hmph!_

_More soon, depending on my level of motivation. I do love a nice Sunday afternoon nap._


	4. Chapter 4

**Deadly Trust**

Summary: Alec is hunting a man he's sure is from Manticore, but Max has her doubts…

_-yawn- All right. No nap. The things we do for a little DA happiness…_

Chapter Four

* * *

Max frantically looked from the man still aiming his gun at her, back to Alec who was lying on his side, blood staining the floor beneath him. He wasn't moving, but at least he was still breathing. Max started forward intent on taking the gun out of their attacker's hand when she felt a bullet zing past her ear so close she imagined it had parted her hair.

"I believe I told you to stay back," the man said sternly. "Now _don't_ _move_."

"Right," Max said, involuntarily reaching up to make sure that her ear was still in one piece. "You had me going there, pal. You take acting classes or are you just naturally good at panicking?"

"Quiet," the man ordered, clearly not amused by her flippant remark. He kicked Alec's gun into the far corner away from them.

Max could smack herself. She still might. The frightened look on the guy's face… She'd been _sure_ that he wasn't Manticore. Now that she had a chance to really look the guy over though, she could see he was wearing a vest beneath his shirt. After the incident in the alley, he'd known Alec was going to come after him.

His gun still trained on her, the man moved back from Alec. "Pick him up."

"What?" Max asked incredulously.

"I said pick him up. I don't want you two messing up my kitchen."

"He's too heavy," Max answered. "There's no way I can carry him."

The man just shook his head. "Save it. Even if I didn't recognize you, I know an X-series when I see one. Pick him up."

The man, Phillips, she should call him now since Alec had obviously been right all along, kept a safe distance from her as he moved toward a door on the far wall. He opened it and Max could see inside to what looked like an over-sized pantry, complete with shelves of dry goods lining the walls.

He jerked his head toward the pantry. "Inside."

Max knelt beside Alec and turned him over as gently as she could. Alec groaned slightly, but that was the only response. The front of his shirt was blood-stained, but she couldn't see how much damage had been done. Phillips made an impatient sound behind her so Max raised Alec into a sitting position, grabbed him beneath his arms, and then dragged him into the pantry. She couldn't help noting the smears of blood left behind on the linoleum. Phillips was going to have to mop if he didn't want his wife noticing he'd stashed a body in the pantry.

Not a body. Alec. Who would be totally and completely _fine_.

Before she could even consider trying anything, Phillips had the door closed and locked. Max supposed she could kick it open without too much difficulty, but she could tell their captor was still in the kitchen, probably standing there with gun in hand to make sure she didn't do exactly that. After he'd dropped the harmless bystander act, he'd clearly been more than willing to shoot.

Max heard the click of a cell phone opening and then buttons being pushed. The guy really was familiar with transgenics. He was texting instead of talking because he knew she'd be able to hear. Dealing with stupid people really was easier. Stupid people who hadn't had freaking acting lessons.

She'd helped them. She'd _helped_ them catch Alec who'd been willing to kill to make sure that never happened again.

Alec groaned, drawing Max's attention away from the closed door. "Alec?" She knelt at his side and pushed his jacket out of the way so that she could get a better look. "Alec, you still with me?" she asked loudly. The blood looked to be coming from just along the lower edge of his ribs on the left side of his chest. There were two holes in his t-shirt. Entry and exit. Max untucked his still rain-dampened t-shirt, causing another groan of pain, and pulled it up so that she could examine the damage.

"M'I dying?"

"Not even close," Max answered, unwilling to admit how glad she was to hear him talking. It looked like Alec had been fast enough that he'd turned and the bullet had cut through skin and muscle across the left side of his chest, but hadn't gone deeper, at least not that she could tell. It would be painful and messy, but not lethal as long as her guess was right.

Max put both hands over the wound and pressed down firmly to staunch the bleeding. Alec made a terrible noise, half-groan, half-gasp and Max had to fight the instinct to draw her hands away, hating that she was causing him fresh pain.

"Feels like 'm dying," Alec slurred.

"Don't be such a wuss. You've been shot before."

Alec gave a short cough of a laugh. "You missed your calling, Max. Shoulda been a doctor with that bedside manner, you know that?"

He was trying to turn onto his side, instinctively curling up against the pain, and Max had to force him to remain where he was, keeping steady pressure on his wounds.

"Doctors don't get locked in closets with their dumbass patients who won't tell them why they're in this situation in the first place." She scowled, but the expression was wasted on Alec who had yet to open his eyes.

"I'm pretty sure we're in here 'cause you threw a toaster at me," Alec replied.

"It was a cooking pot," Max answered with a chagrined grimace.

"Yeah. Thanks for that. I'll be sending you my medical bills."

"Since I'm the doctor, I'd be billing myself. Maybe I should raise my rates." Max had to change positions, trying to get a little more comfortable and it put added pressure on Alec's side. He grunted, his entire body tensing, and his face became ashen.

"Sorry."

"S'ok," he said tightly, working to control his breathing. Max knew that just the action of drawing air in and out was agony and he was trying to keep his breaths shallow.

"I mean I'm sorry I threw the pot at you," she said, real guilt setting in now that she had a moment to think.

Alec had been absolutely sure and she'd just ignored him in favor of Logan's quick computer check. Logan was a good guy and so easy to trust. Easy. She'd made the easy choice. When was the easy choice ever the right choice in her world? Looking down now at her bloodstained hands, Max saw exactly what she had done. She'd trusted a guy Alec said was Manticore before she'd trusted Alec himself. How screwed up was that?

Alec, laid-back, carefree Alec… he was so easy to discount. Except he was her partner now, partner in crime, partner in the fight for the transgenics' future, partner in… maybe more. Max had so easily doubted him and she felt her face burn with shame. She'd got him shot. She could have got him killed. And now they were both locked up and still on the wrong end of a gun because she'd written his absolute certainty off as a bad Manticore flashback.

"Hey, Max?" Alec said quietly. Max realized he'd finally opened his eyes and was focused on her. "Next time just throw the pot at the guy I'm aiming at, ok?"

Alec's eyes were bright with pain, but unbelievably, they still shone with amusement. Max gave a half-laugh, half sob. Alec really could read her too well. He knew she'd been silently berating herself and the bastard was laughing at her. She'd practically handed him over to the bad guy on a platter and he was laughing at her for being an idiot. The kicker was that Alec knew that would get to her faster than yelling at her.

"I know you weren't at Manticore as long as I was," he added, "but I'm pretty sure they told you not to hit your own people."

"I was never very good at listening to them," Max replied, a wry twist to her lips.

"I'll draw you a chart when we get out of here," he gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Good guys, bad guys. You shoot the bad guys." Alec fell silent again, concentrating on his breathing.

"You still have your cell phone?"

Alec nodded. "Hip pocket." He raised one eyebrow suggestively. "You'll have to get it. I'm wounded."

"Alec, could you focus, please?" Max sighed. "Guy with a gun in the kitchen, remember?"

"I remember, Max," Alec said, a touch of annoyance peeking through. "Hard to forget when you're having to hold my guts in." _There_ was the anger she'd expected, Max thought almost triumphantly. It was well hidden, but it was there. Gritting his teeth, Alec moved to try and sit up.

"Alec, don't," Max said in alarm. The movement was too painful for him, as she'd expected, and he ended up half-sitting back against the shelves of canned goods, his hands pressed tightly over hers where she was still trying to keep pressure on his side.

"Happy now?" she snapped.

Alec grimaced, biting his lower lip. "Don't I look happy?"

"I was gonna say you look like crap." Alec's hands were pressing so hard over hers, she thought her fingers might snap, but she didn't ask him to stop. He was trying to keep himself together, literally and figuratively.

"Comforting as always," Alec said through gritted teeth. He pulled one hand away and leaned to the side to reach into his pocket. The movement had to be excruciating, but the only sign was that the hand that had remained covering hers wrapped around her fingers tightly, grasping her hand for what solace another human being could offer.

Alec dug the phone out and straightened, gasping through the pain. He flipped the phone open one handed and took a couple of extra seconds to focus on it. Even without seeing the screen, Max could tell the news wasn't good. The phone was smeared with more blood than she wanted to think about. Add rain and Alec falling on it earlier and they were out of luck. He dropped the useless phone in his lap and sat back, exhausted. "Any other ideas?"

"I break the door down, rip his head off and we run for it."

"How come when I say it, it's a bad idea, but when you say it, it's a plan?" Alec asked, doing his best to look aggrieved.

"Because I _thought_ you were just gonna shoot an innocent man."

"You really think I could do that?" And now he was looking at her, the tone far more serious. "After… everything? You really think that?"

Max dropped his gaze, freshly ashamed at how easily she had believed him to be in the wrong. Shame and embarrassment turned to anger, though she knew it was unreasonable. "Like you never screw up? How many times have I had to save your ass?"

Alec snorted and shook his head. "You don't trust me. It's fine, Max. I get it. Probably better that way."

Max tightened her fingers around Alec's where he was still holding her hand. He just shrugged off her dismissal of him as if it were nothing. Sometimes, he was so willing to take crap from her, it scared her. He just accepted that no one really cared and moved on. It might be true for other people, but her… He should know better, shouldn't he? She'd been _trying_ to do the right thing. She had.

"Just never been good at the 'faith in other people' thing. I'm working on it," Max said, trying to make her tone more conciliatory.

Now it was Alec who looked away. "Still probably better…" he said again. "Trust just makes it worse when it all goes wrong."

"Alec?" There was something in his voice. Something very non-Alec.

He forced himself to look at her and she could see how much it cost him. No one Alec's age should have eyes that old.

"What happened with Phillips?" she asked.

Alec blinked slowly, deliberately. Stalling. He paled further, but still did not look away. "It all went wrong."

"How?"

The door behind her opened abruptly. She felt the sting of a tranquilizer dart a mere instant before another dart appeared on Alec's leg. The drug worked faster than she'd expected and she realized it was probably tailor-made for bringing down transgenics and their ramped up metabolisms.

Max had a second to meet Alec's sorrow-filled gaze, before his eyes glazed over. She slumped forward, her head coming to rest against Alec's chest. She could still feel his hand holding hers, though the fingers, tacky with blood, had gone slack. Max fell asleep with the sound of Alec's heart drumming in her ear. It really wasn't how she'd imagined the first time would be, falling asleep in Alec's arms.

* * *

_Those naughty Manticore types… Always dragging off our heroes…_


	5. Chapter 5

**Deadly Trust**

Summary: Alec is hunting a man he's sure is from Manticore, but Max has her doubts…

_A few answers for you here to the Phillips problem… Not all of them, mind you, but some…_

Chapter Five

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Alec startled awake and immediately doubled over as the pain nearly knocked him right back into unconsciousness. Once the pounding in his ears had quieted to a manageable level he remembered what had happened. Phillips had shot him. Max had ignored him all afternoon, thrown a pot at him and then Phillips had shot him. Wasn't that just enough to make a perfect day?

"Good to see you awake, 494."

No, _now_ it was a perfect day.

Taking stock, Alec realized he was still wearing his ruined t-shirt, but he had a fresh bandage covering his side. Whoever was in on this little operation must have done a quick patch job on the bullet wound. They hadn't been kind enough to add any pain meds to the mix, but that would have been asking a lot from a bunch of sadistic bastards. Assuming they were like Phillips, that is. Because Alec was almost certain Phillips had _Sadistic Bastard_ tattooed on him somewhere. Alec didn't want to know where.

"How are you feeling?" Phillips asked.

Alec opened one eye. The room itself was fairly unexceptional. The walls were white, the floor bare concrete. There were no windows. The only light was coming from a pair of florescent lamps above him on the ceiling. Alec was lying on his uninjured side on a simple metal framed cot with one of his hands cuffed to the bed rail above his head. He couldn't see behind him, but he could tell that Max was there, probably on her own cot. Trying to focus on the whole reason he'd opened his eyes, Alec finally located Phillips who was sitting in a chair across the room, his legs crossed, his hands folded in his lap.

"I asked how you are feeling," Phillips said, more steel in his tone.

"Like you care?" Alec managed to croak out past his parched throat.

"Of course, I care. You were all important to me."

"Important to your work, maybe," he replied. "That doesn't mean you cared."

Phillips frowned. "I see that freedom has made you insolent."

"Oh, I was plenty insolent before," Alec said. "I just hid it better so you wouldn't kill me."

"Perhaps. I find it very interesting that you have associated yourself with 452."

"I don't really care what you find interesting."

"She is a traitor, a deserter. She left all of you and her duty behind." Phillips remained still, just watching him. He'd always been good at that. "452 took away your function in this life. She took away your home."

"Still not interested," Alec said, his tone bored. "I'm not part of your experiment anymore."

Phillips smiled, just barely. "That's true. But I couldn't resist taking a moment to get reacquainted. You and your fellow transgenics are all so… special."

"Special or not," Alec shot back, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice, "we are still people. We are not on this earth to amuse you."

Phillips simply raised an eyebrow. "People, now, are you? Interesting." He was silent for a moment contemplating him. "Soldiers, experiments, animals… You and the others are many things, 494, but not _people_."

"My name is Alec."

"Really?" The man almost clapped his hands together, he seemed so amused. "You named yourself?"

Alec desperately wanted to lie and say yes. He wanted to show this man he was self-determined. For once in his life, he wanted to be what he'd made of himself, not what Manticore had made of him. "No. Max gave it to me." Somehow, that was almost as good.

"Max?"

"452."

"I see."

Phillips' expression was almost smug. Thoughtful, but smug. Alec wished he could smack it off his face. If that was what his own smirk looked like, he could see why it pissed Max off so much.

"Why are you keeping us here?" Alec couldn't help asking. After all, Manticore was gone. This guy should have been out of a job.

"I spent my entire professional life working with your kind." The man shrugged. "Transgenics interest me."

That was true, Alec could tell, but not the whole truth either. Phillips always had been a good actor.

"At the moment I am interested in you in particular," he added.

"I am not a bug," Alec snapped. He was a cat and some other freaky things, but not a bug. At least not as far as he knew. "And I am not under your microscope anymore."

"You're not human though, either, are you?" Phillips said, his head canted to one side.

"Human enough to hate you," Alec answered simply.

"Hate me?" The man eyed him in genuine confusion. "Why would you hate me? We were both just doing our jobs."

Alec stared at him, nearly slack-jawed. Why would he hate him? How could he _not_? "You designed that mission."

"Yes?"

"You _purposely_ sent us into an ambush."

Phillips nodded and motioned for him to continue as if to say _what's your point?_

"My team… they _died_," Alec said through clenched teeth. The guy was still acting like it was just an ordinary, everyday thing. Like they were nothing but toy soldiers he'd been moving around a board. Like they weren't living, breathing, _feeling_ beings he'd been playing with. Like they weren't _lives_ he'd destroyed. "They _died_!"

"Not all of you," Phillips said in that reasonable tone that made Alec want to slowly squeeze the life out of him with his bare hands.

"No, the rest of us were captured. You _purposely_ got us captured."

"I am aware," Phillips said. "It was part of the scenario."

"They died for your scenario!" Alec bellowed and was immediately sorry as his stomach muscles tightened, sending sharp, agonizing, _stop doing that_ messages to his brain. Alec wrapped his free arm around his middle protectively, trying to ease the pain, although he knew it was useless.

"That's quite enough of that," Phillips said, once again oh so sensibly. He stood and walked toward the only door to the room. Steel reinforced, Alec noted. "I had hoped you would be reasonable, but I see we'll just have to go about this another way."

Phillips opened the door and left the room, locking it behind him, leaving Alec with just his thoughts and the sound of his own ragged breathing. He had the sudden urge to yank on the cuff holding him until either his wrist or the bed gave way. He had the feeling it would probably be his wrist though, and he liked his wrist. He planned on having it in good working order when he gutted Phillips like a fish.

Frustrated, Alec carefully rolled onto his back, trying to ease the ache in his shoulder from being cuffed and lying in one position for too long. The ceiling wasn't any more remarkable than the rest of the place. It was just a little white room, no windows, nowhere to go, nothing to do or see.

After Phillips had set them up to be captured, how long had they been kept in that little room? It had felt like forever, the room getting smaller and smaller, filthier until his head ached just from the stench, the others alternating between restless frustration, wanting to tear each other apart, and listless, inert depression.

Cell after cell, tiny locked room after tiny locked room. Alec snorted. One would think after all these years, he would be used to being caged. Again, the urge to yank on the cuff shackling him to the bed was almost overwhelming.

Alec rolled his head toward his fellow captive. "I know you're awake, Max. Enjoy the floor show?"

Max frowned and Alec felt a hint of a grin appearing. Busted.

She sat up slowly and Alec noted she was handcuffed to her cot as well. "Don't floor shows usually have more dancing?" she asked, her voice a bit raspy from disuse.

"I was always partial to singing myself," Alec replied.

Max raised an eyebrow. "Good, cause you can't dance worth a crap."

"You've got room to talk after the performance you put on to save Fish Girl." He gave a mock shudder.

"Like that is _dancing_," Max scowled.

"Fine. You wanna waltz, I'm at your service."

"You know how to waltz?" she asked, eyeing him incredulously.

"I had to attend a ball for an ambassador for… some reason or another." And for some reason, the idea of Max in a frilly dress going out for a night of dancing was both wrong and somehow exhilarating. Max in his arms, moving around a dance floor together in perfect synchronization… "I'll steal a tux, you steal a dress and it's a date," Alec grinned. "I'll even spring for a fancy dinner."

Max just rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"You ok?" he asked, the levity fading as he looked her over for injuries. "They didn't hurt you?"

Max shook her head. "I'm fine. They drugged us and just dumped us here to wake up, I think."

"Phillips needs to learn some new tricks," Alec couldn't help muttering, then bit his lip knowing Max wouldn't let that pass.

"This guy was in charge of you or something?"

"No, thank goodness." Phillips had only managed to get his hands on him one time. Once had been more than enough. "He's Psy-Ops."

That got Max's attention and he couldn't blame her. Nobody messed with the Psy-Ops people. They could take your brain apart and it was up to them when and how, or _if_, they ever put it back together. Most of the time, they just got tired of messing with a broken product and had you put down like a rabid dog.

"But he sent your team on a mission?"

"Not exactly."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No." He did _not_ want to talk about this. He felt his muscles drawing up involuntarily.

"Alec," Max said in annoyance. "If this guy's gonna kill me, I'd kinda like to know why."

Alec just stared at her, fury bubbling up that he had to immediately tamp back down. Phillips had managed to back him into a corner yet again without even knowing about it.

Alec didn't want to be here. He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to even _remember_ what had happened. He just wanted to kill the guy and move on in the comforting knowledge that the monster in the closet was well and truly dead. Alec had killed a lot of people. What was one more? Especially one who deserved anything and everything that came to him. He wouldn't even lose any sleep over it. Just one last job for X5-494. Was that really so much to ask?

The door was abruptly thrown open and Max and Alec both jumped in surprise. The first man through the door kept a gun poised and aimed at Max, while two other men followed him in. They unlocked Alec's cuffs and he fought not to cry out as they unceremoniously dragged him up off the bed, one guard at each arm.

They hauled him out, shut the door behind them and locked it, locked Max away from him as he was dragged down a poorly lit hallway. Psy-Ops always had been fond of poorly lit hallways. It added to the impending sense of doom. Doom and gloom.

* * *

_More soon…_


	6. Chapter 6

**Deadly Trust**

Summary: Alec is hunting a man he's sure is from Manticore, but Max has her doubts…

_Thank you very, very much to those of you who review. And to those of you that I can't respond to, an extra special thanks. Ok, now where were we…_

Chapter Six

* * *

Max sat back against the wall, her knees drawn up to her chest and her eyes fixed on the closed door. She had one hand cuffed to the bed, so she only had one arm to wrap around her legs. She just felt too exposed sitting there in the open waiting for whatever was going to happen next. The thought of being in Psy-Ops' hands, even Ex-Psy-Ops, wasn't exactly comforting. 

Max thought maybe she heard movement outside the door, but it could just be her imagination. It was over an hour since they'd taken Alec away and her imagination wasn't doing her any favors. She heard more scratching at the door and now she knew it was real. The lock clicked and then the door flew open, banging back against the wall. As before, one man came in first, aiming a gun to keep her where she was. Two men followed, dragging Alec between them. He was limp as a rag doll, his head drooping forward so that she couldn't see his face, and Max doubted he was even conscious.

The two men dumped him on his cot and roughly pulled one of Alec's arms over his head to cuff him to the frame once more. Eyeing her warily, they quickly retreated through the door and closed it again.

"Alec?"

Nothing. No movement at all.

"_Alec_," she said more forcefully.

"Mpfh."

"You ok?" Stupid question. No, he wasn't ok. She waited nevertheless. Still no answer.

Max stood up. She wrapped her hand around the cuffs where they were attached to the heavy metal bed frame and dragged the entire cot, making an unbelievable racket on the concrete floor. She didn't care whether the noise drew the guards back or not. She needed to be closer. Max had to work since she was permanently fixed to the bed, but she finally managed to push it right up against Alec's.

He was lying flat on his back, his head turned slightly away from her. Thanks to the cuffs, one hand was raised over his head in what had to be an uncomfortable position. The other was resting on his chest. She sat down cross-legged on her bed and with a little difficulty moved forward until her knees were just brushing his side, though she was careful not to jostle him as it was his injured side facing her. She leaned toward him and gently set her free hand over his. Alec flinched at the contact, but that was his only response.

"Alec?" She raised her hand toward his face and brushed his hair, longer these days, back from his brow. He turned his head toward her and Max fought the urge to rip the bed apart to free herself from the cuffs so that she could go tear Phillips' head off. Alec's lip was split, his jaw was quickly bruising and one of his eyes was already well on its way to being black. Whoever had been asking the questions was obviously a right-hander. The entire left side of Alec's face was a mess. Max set her hand back over his, also noting that there was fresh blood at the wound on his side. She had the uncomfortable feeling his clothes were hiding more injuries. Dinner and dancing were going to have to wait a few days.

"What happened, Alec?" Max asked quietly. He muttered something unintelligible and Max leaned closer. "What?"

His eyes opened, just a bare crack, then closed again. "Ambush," he muttered.

"Ambush?"

"Mission went south," he said, his words slurred. "Knew we were coming."

The original mission, Max realized. He was combining the present and the past. "You were deliberately sent into a trap."

Alec frowned trying to make sense of it. He wouldn't have known that at the time, but he knew it now.

"What happened?" Max asked again.

"Hmmm?"

"Report, 494. What happened to your men?"

Alec winced at her tone, straightening involuntarily on the bed. The movement was enough to set off his internal alarms and he opened his eyes again. Every barrier he had slammed back into place. She actually watched him rebuild his defenses right in front of her. It took several seconds and at the end, a world-weary smirk appeared. "Low blow, Max."

"Just tell me what happened, Alec," Max said, completely unapologetic.

Alec looked at her, and Max wished she knew what he was thinking, but he didn't give anything away. Finally, he gave a bare approximation of a shrug as if to say what did it really matter. Clearly it _did_ matter. He'd been fighting her all day because it mattered, but he wasn't going to admit it. "There were ten people on the team. They took out four of us in the original firefight."

"The rest of you were captured?" She waited for him to nod. "Where did they take you?"

"Don't know. Locked us all in a room."

"Then what happened?"

"Manticore."

"I don't understand."

"Another team was sent to retrieve us. We didn't know it, but we were knocked out and transported back to Manticore."

"Why would they do that?"

"Psy-Ops wanted to study how we would handle a POW situation. The whole mission was just an excuse for us to be captured. Once we'd been confined, they knocked us out and brought us back to headquarters so they could watch the fallout. They didn't tell us that, of course. They kept up the pretense that we were still in enemy hands and we didn't know any better. It was just another room to us." Alec's voice was carefully even, almost monotone, as he tried to keep some distance between himself and whatever scenes he was seeing in his head

"You still thought you were prisoners?" Max asked just to keep him talking.

"Oh, we were prisoners. Psy-Ops made sure of that. _Phillips_ made sure of that."

"Did they…" Max trailed off, unsure of how to ask. _Were you treated well?_ seemed a completely trite question given Alec's immediate reaction to seeing Phillips again.

"Phillips was our… interrogator, I guess you'd say. It gave him a chance to study us up close, gauge our reaction to being POWs."

"And when you couldn't answer his questions?" Max asked.

Alec couldn't hold her gaze and Max felt her heart drop. Not all injuries were physical. Some were burnt into a person's soul. Max had the feeling being locked in that room, being treated like enemies caught in the act, that Alec and the others had seen their share of both kinds of wounds.

"Six of us started out the experiment," Alec finally said. "Just two of us made it out."

"The rest…"

"Two went crazy. Guards came in and pulled them out. I assume they were killed. We never saw them again, even after the experiment. Two others were killed during the experiment."

Max fought to keep the revulsion from her face, afraid Alec would stop if she showed too much emotion. "They murdered them?"

Once again, Alec shrugged as if it didn't really matter, but his eyes were haunted. "Had to keep the POW experience real, I guess."

Max had no idea what to ask next, completely appalled. Two went crazy. That took time. How long had Phillips' experiment gone on?

"At the very end, it was just me and two others," Alec said quietly and Max could tell his mind was not in the room with her. "They had all the data they wanted. I think I could tell even then that Phillips was bored with keeping up the charade. They went for one last showdown… sort of an end-of-experiment party…" His expression faltered and Max could see he was losing the battle to stay in control. He looked like he was somewhere between wanting to sob and to hit something. He shifted, trying to ease the awkward position of his cuffed arm and made a tiny whimpering sound that made Max wince in sympathy.

"Alec why don't you get some rest," she said, taking pity on him. Alec was clearly exhausted and she was torturing him asking to remember what had happened.

"I think they were afraid we weren't stable enough," he said distantly, as if it had happened to someone else. "They were considering putting kill switches in us just in case. Just push a button and lights out. They're probably sorry they didn't now…"

"Alec, look at me," Max said firmly. He blinked, as if coming awake and turned his eyes toward her, beautiful doubt-filled green eyes. Max took his hand and brought it closer, holding it against her chest. His skin felt cold and she wished for a blanket to cover him, but there was nothing she could do about that right now. All she could do was talk. "Alec, Manticore's gone."

"You mean other than the guy who's got us handcuffed to our beds," Alec replied, a tiny smirk appearing.

Max gave a light huff of a laugh. "Yeah. Other than him." Manticore did have a way of coming back to bite them at the most inopportune moments. "But you know what I mean."

"I know, Max," he said wearily. "It's fine. I'm fine."

Fine… It wasn't the first word that had come to mind, but Max should have known better. Her happy-go-lucky Alec who didn't care about anything or anyone probably had more self-control than anyone she knew, herself included. He didn't whine about his past, he didn't act out. No one saw the bitter, angry, confused soul. No one saw the soldier, the killer. He locked that away so that no one had to see it but him and not even that if he could help it.

All the more reason she should have believed him when he said he recognized Phillips. Alec didn't let anything show unless it was so beyond his normal ability to hide it that he simply couldn't manage anymore. Alec had taken one look at the guy and felt so immediately threatened that he'd gone for the throat, literally. Max should have believed him.

There was only one problem with that. Deep down, she knew that if she'd just let Alec kill Phillips, she would have always held it against him. He'd have been a murderer in her eyes. They weren't Manticore and they didn't just get to kill people who were defective. If Alec had just killed him, it would have been a deal-breaker. She'd have lost him.

"You always think this much, Max?"

"Huh?"

"You look like your brain is hurting," Alec said. Max realized he was staring at her, a wisp of a smile on his face.

"Just thinking," she offered. "You ok?"

"No problems. You?"

"Walk in the park," she said, matching his unconcerned tone.

"You know the park is contaminated, right?" he replied, all mock-innocence.

"You're kinda ruining my daydream, Alec." She smacked his arm, pulling it so that she barely made contact.

"Ow," he said, more out of habit than anything else. "You trying to put Phillips out of his job?"

"What does he want, Alec?"

"How should I know?" Alec answered tiredly.

"They normally ask a whole lot of questions while they're hitting you," she said.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Alec sighed and winced. He spread his fingers wide over his ribs and remained very still for several seconds, his breathing shallow.

"Ribs?"

"A steak sounds better, but whatever you've got," he said tightly.

"Alec…"

"Relax, Maxie. Trying to lighten the mood."

"I don't want to lighten the mood. I want out of here and I want to know why they were smacking you around!"

Alec looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "_You_ smack me around. Why all the interest now?"

"You gonna tell me or not?"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. From the sound of it, Phillips is still working for the military. Manticore shut down and he just changed projects."

"So?"

"So what?"

Max sighed in frustration. "What does he want, Alec?"

"Seems they need some intel from one of my last missions. Manticore went up in smoke and so did the paperwork," Alec said, sounding bored.

"You tell them?" Max asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"They didn't say please."

"Why. Not?"

"Cause Normal will give us a raise before I tell Phillips _anything_," Alec said simply.

"Anything?"

"That includes my shoe size and the new identities I arranged for the ambassador and his family."

"Why do they want to know that?"

"My shoe size? Who knows." Alec shook his head. "The ambassador? Probably need some info only the bigwig politicians know. Or they want to blackmail or bribe him into doing something for them. It's always something like that…"

The door opened again and the same gun-wielding guard from earlier came in first. He was followed this time by Phillips, however. She felt Alec pull his hand away from her and she accepted his need to appear more able-bodied in the face of the enemy. She still missed the reassuring sense of contact.

"452?" Phillips asked.

"Name's Max," she frowned. She really hated it when they called her 452.

"You have had a very unfortunate influence on 494," he said, completely ignoring her statement. "Very unfortunate. He was a well-behaved soldier when last I knew him."

"Yeah, having a gun aimed at your head has a tendency to make a person behave," Max snapped.

"Max…" Alec said in warning.

"I hope you are right," Phillips said. He gestured to the guard who raised his gun and aimed it straight at Max's head. She instinctively pressed herself back against the bed frame.

"Her life is in your hands, 494," Phillips said calmly. "We need that information and we do not have time for your issues. You have three seconds to decide. One…"

"Wait!" Alec said frantically.

"Two…"

* * *

_Well, now… that seems like a perfectly good place to leave it… More soon…_


	7. Chapter 7

**Deadly Trust**

Summary: Alec is hunting a man he's sure is from Manticore, but Max has her doubts…

_Sorry for the delay, folks. Too much on the old plate sometimes… Here we go._

_One…_

_Two…_

Chapter Seven

* * *

"Phillips, don't!" Alec shouted. 

"Three."

Max closed her eyes, waiting for the shot, but instead she heard a grunt followed by the sound of a body falling to the ground. She warily opened her eyes to see Alec standing in front of her, gun in hand aimed at Phillips, and the guard unconscious on the floor. Max looked at the bed where Alec had been restrained and saw one cuff hanging loose, the other still attached to the bed frame.

"You should tell your men to be more careful when they're manhandling a transgenic," Alec said, breathing heavily, his free arm plastered against his injured side. "We can use just about anything to pick a lock."

"I'll be sure to remind them," Phillips answered coldly.

"Catch, Max," Alec said without taking his eyes off of the man opposite.

Max held out her hand and caught the small piece of metal Alec tossed to her. It looked like a metal clasp from one of the men's clothes. Alec had bent it out of shape to make a pick. Knowing now wasn't the time, she quit admiring Alec's resourcefulness and hurried to open the lock on her own cuffs. She then stood and walked toward Alec, rubbing her chafed wrist.

"He'll have a gun on him," Alec said.

Max only nodded and, while Alec covered her, quickly located the gun Phillips was wearing in an ankle holster.

"Why did they send you anyway?" Alec asked. "Surely, they would have known I might have…," Max saw him searching for the right words, "_hard feelings_ toward you."

Phillips simply shrugged, still cool as a cucumber. "They knew you would come after me. They were counting on it. You just caught me before the team could catch up in the alley. They never have believed me about how fast you transgenics are."

"You were a trap?" Alec asked, looking like he'd been sucker-punched.

"Precisely."

Alec shook his head in disbelief. "Walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"I'd have thought you'd learned your lesson," Phillips said. He sounded like a teacher scolding a not particularly bright student, rather than a man who'd tortured and killed children for the sake of science. Max's finger itched to pull the trigger of the gun she'd taken from the man.

"You certainly did your best to beat it into me," Alec replied with a humorless laugh.

"I was doing my job," Phillips said, "my duty to my country. Something _you_ have clearly lost sight of."

Max saw Alec's gun waver, knew the adrenaline rush was passing that was keeping Alec upright, knew they needed to hurry. "Your _job_ made you a murderer."

Phillips simply raised an eyebrow. "You would know, wouldn't you, 494?"

"You bastard," Max couldn't help saying. It was no less than what she'd accused Alec of herself the first time she'd met him, but now she understood far better. Alec, however, had gone deathly, painfully still. Max stepped closer to him and placed a hand against his back, a reminder that he wasn't alone. She was on his side now. Alec took a breath and Max realized he'd been holding it.

"You were so easy to catch," Phillips said and to Max's ears it sounded almost malicious. "Being with 452 has made you sloppy." He glanced toward Max, anger burning brightly in his eyes. It was the first time she'd really seen him lose his careful, unruffled demeanor. Apparently, Alec wasn't the only one with some lingering issues.

"Being with Max is the only reason that you're still _breathing_," Alec said, freshly incensed. "You should be _thanking_ her."

"She took Manticore from me. She took it from _us_. It was doing good work that would have helped this country." His gaze traveled back to Alec, genuinely puzzled. "You were a good soldier. Why are you _with_ her?"

"Nobody's _with_ me," Max snapped.

"I'm with Max," Alec said as if she hadn't spoken, "_because_ she took down Manticore. You don't like me. I'm an animal, and you'd kill me as soon as look at me. She might not like me much, but she set me free. Free to be a soldier if I want, free to be a jerk, free to be a hero or a complete loser. Max, gave me the _choice_."

"This doesn't change anything," Phillips said angrily. "We still need that information whether you like it or not. It's a matter of national security."

"Isn't it always?" Alec smirked. Phillips didn't think much more of Alec's smirk than Max usually did. Right now though, Max thought it was almost endearing.

"I am trying to do my job and keep this country safe, 494," Phillips said sternly.

"I don't like your methods," Alec said just as sternly.

"I don't _care_."

"See?" Alec asked. "Was that so hard?" The man frowned in confusion. "I told you at the beginning you didn't care."

"494, that information will save _lives_," Phillips urged. "We _need_ to talk to the ambassador and we can't find him."

"That was the whole point," Alec shot back. "Him not being found. New identity and all that."

"Stop being uncooperative!" the man shouted. "Forget about X5-675, damn you! We need your help!"

"My _help_?" Alec asked and his tone drew Max's full attention. The bruises on his face were standing out in vivid contrast to his otherwise ashen color. He was shaking with fury and Phillips began to back away, moving toward the open door. He could see his death in Alec's expression. Max didn't know what it was about, but Phillips had made a serious miscalculation bringing up whoever 675 was.

"You must do your duty!" the man ordered, still walking backwards. He nearly tripped over the still unconscious guard, but kept moving. "Be reasonable!"

"_Now_ you want reason?" Alec demanded. Phillips had backed out into the hall and was looking both ways for which held the better chance of survival if he ran. He knew too much about transgenics, though. Despite being injured, Alec would be too fast for him. "After you trap me _again_? After you threaten to shoot Max? You threaten the woman I love and _now_ you ask for reason?"

A deafening explosion came from down the hall and all three of them jumped in surprise. A second later another blast rocked the building. This time it was close enough that debris flew past the door to the room they were in. Phillips was still standing in the corridor. He was knocked down by the force of the explosion and thrown out of their line of sight.

Max and Alec simply stood for several seconds, shocked into silence. They could hear debris falling out in the hallway and Max waved away the cloud of heavy dust that was sifting in through the door.

Alec carefully stuck his head out into the corridor, looking first one way and then the other. Finally, he stepped in the direction Phillips had been thrown and Max followed him out.

Phillips was on his side where he'd been thrown into a wall and fallen in a crumpled heap at its base, his neck at an unnatural angle. Even as they watched, another chunk of plaster fell away from the wall and settled on top of the dead man.

Alec let the gun drop to his side, just looking down at his fallen enemy. Finally, he cleared his throat. "Well, that was a little more dramatic than I was going for, but it worked out all right."

"Are you ok?" Max asked him carefully. Her mind was spinning, beyond spinning, trying to gather in and process everything Alec had said. And surprisingly Alec didn't even seem to be aware that he'd said anything out of the ordinary.

"Fine," Alec answered, eyes still on Phillips. Max thought he looked like he wanted to give him a kick for good measure. The thought drew her attention to the fact that fresh blood was staining his shirt where he'd been shot.

"We need to get out of here," she urged. "The cops will be on the way."

"MAX!"

They both turned to see Logan hurrying down the hall toward them being followed by of all people, Digger.

"Max, are you all right?" Logan asked.

"I'm fine," she answered. "But Alec…" She felt Alec drape an arm across her shoulders and turned to see that he was closer than she'd expected, his face as pale as a ghost. His arm tightened around her and she instinctively faced him, wrapping her own arms around him. "Alec?"

"Sorry, Maxie," he said, visibly faltering. Max braced herself, taking more of his weight as he began to fade.

"Stay with me, Alec," she ordered.

"Trying." A slight smile crossed his mouth before it too faded away.

"Try harder," she said. "You're heavy."

Logan instinctively started forward to help, but it was a deadly impulse. An accidental brush against her skin and Logan would be toast. "Don't touch him," Max snapped, surprising herself as well as Logan. She'd actually meant to say _me_, but now that she thought of it, she was feeling about as over-protective as she could get toward Alec. His words were ringing in her ears and she wanted him to be all right so that she could hear them again.

Alec was almost a dead weight and rather than fight it, she followed him down, gently kneeling as he sank to the floor, still held in her arms. Alec's head drooped forward, falling on her shoulder. His lips brushed over her throat, a bare whisper of a kiss, just a touch, and Max gasped at the sensation. Even barely conscious, the man knew how to surprise her.

"Max?" Logan asked, looking at her with an odd expression on his face.

She supposed it really was an odd sight, her hugging a now unconscious Alec. She knew they needed to move, but she didn't want to. For the first time since she'd thrown the pot and Phillips had shot him, Alec's breathing was even and untroubled. She could feel it brushing across her skin, warming her. She felt like she'd been cold for so long.

Max heard a shout and knew the remaining guards were coming. They had to go. She gave Logan a conciliatory, if somewhat strained smile. She'd been rude when he'd come to save her. Not that it was the first time. Probably wasn't the last either. She was just sort of wired to be difficult.

Max heard Digger clear his throat nervously. "Look, whatever issues you guys got goin' on, we gotta scram. _Now_."

She turned toward Digger, who was standing to one side, his eyes bouncing back and forth between her and Logan. "You wanna help me get him to the car?" She might feel bad that she'd snapped at Logan, but she still couldn't afford to have him that close.

Max gave Logan an apologetic shrug, then stopped at the expression on his face. Logan was looking at her as if seeing a complete stranger and Max instinctively tightened her arms around Alec, mindful of his bruised ribs. Logan would never hurt Alec. She knew that. But for just a second, she knew she'd seen the truth. Logan wished Alec had never been set free. He wished he'd never set foot in Seattle. Logan wished Phillips had better aim.

Digger took Alec's feet and Logan turned, gun in hand, to lead the way out.

* * *

_The wrap-up tomorrow…_


	8. Chapter 8

**Deadly Trust**

Summary: Alec is hunting a man he's sure is from Manticore, but Max has her doubts…

_Here you have it, all finished up. Hope you enjoyed it. To those of you who asked about another DA story… Just depends on the muse… Thanks for all the kind reviews._

Chapter Eight

* * *

Max sat sideways in the rear seat of the car, her back against the door. Alec was half-sitting, half lying across the seat with his back against her chest. She wasn't sure if he was conscious or not, but his heavy frame leaning against her was warm and real and solid. 

Max brushed her fingers through his hair in a circular motion, comforted by the tactile sensation. She decided it was a normal reaction to being denied the ability to touch the person she cared about for so long. Partially, anyway. But it was also Alec. She was responsible for his being in the state he was. She'd disarmed him herself so that Phillips could shoot him and beat the crap out of him. And yet, after all that… he'd still said… what he said. She just wanted him close right now. Max needed to be able to touch him, to know he was alive.

Answering her question of whether or not he was conscious, Alec sighed and leaned into her hand, clearly enjoying the soothing feel of her fingers in his hair. Given the state of his face, Max imagined his head was hurting him. Max caught Logan watching them in the rearview mirror and it somehow seemed… wrong. Like he was peeking in on a moment that should have been private. Just her and Alec.

"How did you find us?" she asked, wanting to draw Logan's attention away from them.

"What?" Logan looked confused and she realized he'd been too focused on her and Alec to listen.

"How did you find us? I mean, we're nowhere near the house where we started out," Max clarified.

"This guy." He pointed to Digger, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.

Logan turned a sharp corner. Alec groaned, shifting against her, and Max instinctively tightened her arms around him. "Alec?"

"S'ok, Max," he almost wheezed, not bothering to raise his head.

"Hey, you're awake!" Digger turned around in his seat. "Told you I could find you," he said proudly.

"Good thing I didn't kill you then," Alec murmured so quietly that Max was certain she was the only one who'd heard it.

"What?" Digger asked, as if confirming her thought.

"Why were you looking for us?" Max asked.

"You guys shorted me ten bucks and I was trying to find you. I know a guy who knows a guy."

"News travels fast," Max scowled and Digger laughed.

"Military types holed up in a warehouse tend to attract a bit of attention. Specially when they're asking around about a guy like Alec and not being too subtle either."

"You knew they were looking for Alec when you sold us the part?" Max asked.

"Well, yeah." Digger shrugged. "Don't worry about the ten bucks, by the way. Logan, here, gave it to me."

"You couldn't have given us a heads up?" she snapped, furious that their lives had almost depended on shorting this moron a ten.

"And miss all this fun?" Digger asked. "Besides, a guy's got to make a living."

"He told them, Max," Alec said quietly, no real anger in his tone. "Probably led Phillips to us."

"Why would you do that?" Max asked, appalled. "You knew what kind of people they were!"

"Hey," Digger looked incensed, "I went and got your buddy here to save you. I even let him have some of my dynamite to get you out. You think I give up my dynamite for just anybody?"

"You're a real humanitarian." Alec gave a half-laugh, then gasped. He involuntarily tried to straighten, pressing Max back into the door. She rubbed her hands up and down his arms, trying to soothe him as best she could.

"Yeah, well I'm still gonna kick your ass when I get hold of you, you got that?" Max said, giving Digger the full weight of her furious glare. "Just because you helped us after you got us caught, doesn't make you a friend."

"The thanks I get for saving you two." He shook his head, then elbowed Logan. "You can let me out here." Logan pulled the car over and Digger quickly exited, though he leaned back in and looked at the pair in the back seat. "Max, it's been a blast." He grinned at his own pun, then turned his eyes to Alec. "Buddy, you've got one crazy chick on your hands, but she suits you."

"Digger, close the door and go away before I use it to bash your head in," Max ordered.

The man just laughed and shut the door. A second later, he'd disappeared down an alley.

"We need a hospital?" Logan asked, looking at her in the rearview mirror.

"My place," Max said. "I've got supplies." She also wanted to be on home ground. She felt like her entire world was skittering off the tracks thanks to one of the weirdest days of her life, and considering her life, that was saying a lot. Max needed to be on her own turf when she and Alec got around to talking.

"Max, my place might be-"

"No," she cut him off and studiously refused to acknowledge the hurt expression on his face as Logan pulled back out and headed for her apartment. It had been a long, exhausting day and she just didn't have the energy to spare. Alec shifted in her arms again and she tightened her hold on him, as if he might try to escape. Instead she felt him relax into unconsciousness. His head lolled to the side, his face turned toward her. She rested her chin against his forehead and closed her eyes.

* * *

"Max?" 

Max blinked and realized she'd dozed off. They were stopped in front of her building and Logan was holding open the car door opposite her.

"Slide him this way," he suggested. Max hesitated, again reluctant to release Alec. "Come on, Max," he said gently, as if reading her thoughts. "We need to get him inside."

Max nodded, realizing she was being childish. That and Alec was hurting while she wasted time on her issues with Logan. "Alec, you awake?"

"Mpfh."

"Alec, we've got to move you, ok?"

Max waited for Alec to nod, then very carefully kept her distance as she helped Alec slide toward Logan. Max jumped out on her side of the car and came around the back to find Logan helping a still groggy Alec lean against the car. She waited for Logan to step back then threw one of Alec's arms across her shoulders. "Ready?" she asked. Once again she waited for a nod, then began walking him toward the building with Logan striding alongside at a safe, virus-approved distance. In only a few minutes with Logan unlocking, opening, and holding doors, they were all upstairs and inside her apartment.

Max headed straight for her bedroom, Alec still in tow. She walked to the side, turned her back to the bed and slowly sat down on it. Alec, his arm still across her shoulders, mirrored her movements and sat beside her.

Max stood and without asking grabbed a pair of scissors, cut Alec's t-shirt back and front and pulled it off over his arms. She couldn't help a grimace. Yup, definitely more bruises than Alec had let on about. "Lay back," she said and he immediately obeyed, with a groan. She helped him raise his legs off the floor, then pulled his shoes off and threw them across the room. The sodden bandage over the bullet wound was a useless mess, so she removed it too and threw it in the nearest trashcan.

Max looked up to see Logan standing in the doorway to her bedroom with a look on his face that nearly took her breath away. Loss, pain, jealousy, resentment, longing, anguish, grief. It was all there on his face, plain for the world to see. Defeat.

"Domesticity, Manticore style," he said, just a hint of bitterness in his tone, though he was trying to hide it.

"Logan-"

"It's fine, Max." But unlike Alec, Logan just had no ability to hide how un-fine he was. It was one of the reasons she loved him. He was an open book. Any girl would be lucky to have this man at her side.

There was just one problem. And he was currently bleeding all over her sheets while she stood there like an idiot.

"Thanks," she finally said to Logan. "You know… for coming after us."

"It's what I do," he smiled sadly. "Save the damsel in distress. When he wakes up, you can tell Alec he's the damsel."

"I will," she grinned. Generosity, Logan's middle name.

He turned to leave, then stopped not quite looking at her. "You know you can't trust him."

Max stepped closer to Alec. She'd heard his heart rate increase, heard his bare intake of breath, although he looked as peacefully relaxed as he had before.

"Some people you trust because they've earned it," she said straightly. "And some because you can trust them to do the _wrong_ thing. But some people, you trust them because you want to. You want them to be better. And maybe that makes them want it too."

"Logan, you been giving her philosophy lessons again?" Alec croaked. He turned his head and looked up at Max, blinking slowly, but his eyes were clear, so many thoughts dancing behind them she couldn't follow.

When there wasn't an answer, Max looked up and saw that Logan was gone and she heard the front door to the apartment closing quietly.

Max self-consciously gathered up the first aid supplies and under Alec's watchful eyes, set to work. She started with the bullet wound, redoing the work that had already been done. She cleaned the wound, pulled out the ripped stitches and replaced them with well-practiced ease. Next, she got a fresh cloth and wet it with warm water. Alec turned his head toward her and allowed her to gently wash his bruised face. He winced slightly as she ran the washcloth over his split lip.

"Sorry."

"S'fine," he said gruffly, his eyes never leaving her.

He watched hungrily as she leaned closer and gently placed a whisper soft kiss over the injury, lips just touching lips. She sat back, blushing, but unable to look away.

"All better now," he said, a tiny smile beginning.

"I heard what you told Phillips," Max said, one eyebrow arched.

"You wanna remind me?" Alec asked. "I doubt you'll believe it, but sometimes my mouth is on auto-pilot."

She gave him an expression of mock-disbelief. "You don't say."

"I do," he replied innocently.

"You always declare your feelings to a stranger before you tell the girl?" Max didn't bother to hide the fact that she was clearly nonplussed.

"Oh, _that_," he said as if just remembering it. "It was the stress." Alec grinned despite his split lip. "I wasn't thinking straight."

Max glared. "You thinking straight now?"

"Depends on whether you're gonna hit me or not."

"I'm thinking about it," she answered.

"I'm trusting you to make the right call," he said with a nod.

Max threw the washcloth aside. She then stood and toed off her shoes. Alec watched her warily as she moved around to the other side of the bed. Careful not to jostle him, she stretched out beside him, pressing herself along his uninjured side. "I'm trusting you with more than that."

* * *

More surprised than he had ever been in his life, Alec felt his muscles tense. Unsure of what to do or say, Alec simply waited while Max stretched out, settling herself on her side, her head on his shoulder. Her arm came to rest naturally on his chest and finally she sighed, her warm breath brushing over his bare skin. Despite himself, he began to relax, his muscles sinking back into the bed, molding to her shape next to him. 

Max looked up at the same moment he looked down and Alec found himself nose to nose with her. She brushed the tip of her nose over his, a feather-light caress to let him know that she was where she wanted to be, that she knew what she was doing. It was all the encouragement he needed.

Alec kissed her greedily, happy to be alive, happy Max was alive, happy they'd made it to this moment, not even sure _how_ they'd made it to this moment.

Her lips were like water to a thirsty man. He drank and drank. Alec had been lost in the desert for so long. He'd been a nomad, concerned only with daily survival. He wasn't sure he knew how to live any other way, but her lips, her mouth, her body pressed against his… She was an oasis in the desert.

Max's hand tightened around his ribcage to draw him closer and Alec realized he must have made a sound, because Max instantly released him.

"Alec," she said, "I'm sorry. I…"

She started to pull away, but Alec held her firmly in place, partly because movement would cause further pain, and partly because now that she was beside him, he couldn't bear for her to leave.

"S'ok," he assured her. Alec closed his eyes, keeping his breaths shallow. As his ribs began to settle down, he felt Max relax too and settle back into the crook of him arm, resting her head back on his shoulder.

The pain had cleared his head and it finally dawned on Alec what she'd said.

_I'm trusting you with more than that. _

_I'm trusting you…_

His team had trusted him too. He'd led them on that mission. They had been his responsibility. He'd promised them, even if only to himself, that he would get them back in one piece. They'd trusted him and he'd lost four in the original ambush.

Despite that obvious failure, the rest had still trusted him. They had looked to him for answers and courage and leadership after they'd been locked in that tiny room and been treated like animals. Well, even more so than Manticore normally did its animals.

Their captors had kept at them and Alec had fought and fought to keep them all together and sane. But it had been too much. He just hadn't had whatever it took to keep them from losing touch with reality. The two youngest of the group, the weakest, the ones with the least training, they'd been the ones to lose it. They were just children and they were being tortured and their minds had snapped.

That had left four. 421 had been killed trying to escape. Alec had seen the madness creeping up in him too and it had almost been a merciful death. At that point, he'd lost two thirds of his team and still the remainder had trusted him to get them out somehow.

That had left three. Despite the fact that their little cell had become larger as the population in it decreased, the room had seemed smaller and smaller, closing in until Alec just couldn't breathe anymore. His last two team members were looking to him to come up with some crazy way to free them. As if Alec hadn't been studying the few defenses he could see for the weeks they had been there and had yet to see a single way out that didn't involve a body bag. But still they'd trusted him.

Just days before the experiment ended, though he'd had no way of knowing that, Phillips had shot 675 right in front of him, demanding that Alec give them information that he just didn't know. And worse, Phillips had _known_ he didn't know. He'd just wanted to see what Alec would do. He could still see 675, her eyes begging him to give the guards whatever information they wanted, to do _anything_, but to please save her.

And now there was Max. Max who was in his arms. She could take care of herself. He knew it was true and she'd kill him if he said otherwise.

That didn't make her trust any less of a burden.

Or gift.

What if one day she trusted him and he made a mistake? What if he trusted her and she let him down. Wouldn't be the first time it had happened. For either one of them.

Doubt said he should go. Fear of failure, failing Max. Fear of counting on people who _always_ failed you in the end. Maybe used you.

Too many disasters, too many failures, too many disappointments…

History, experience, even training said he should go.

Self-preservation said he should go.

Instinct said he should go.

Max curled closer into his side. "Stay," she said simply.

Alec wrapped his arm around her slender shoulders. And he stayed.

* * *

_Been a pleasure… Thanks for reading._


End file.
